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Luke Bryan opened up about facing significant loss in his family during a vulnerable conversation with Anderson Cooper.
The award-winning country star joined Cooper on a new episode of All There Is, a podcast that allows Cooper to continue “his deeply personal exploration of grief in all its complexities,” and have “moving and honest discussions” with others.
Bryan, 49, opened up about losing his sister, Kelly, in 2007. She was 39.
“I’ve never really explained what happened to my sister,” Bryan said. “You know, there’s some misinformation out there on the internet, and I think some people kind of wondered what happened, and they think that we tried to cover it up. But there is a very, very small percentage of people that die for no reason in the world. And it’s called sudden death syndrome. And that’s essentially what they described my sister’s death as.”
Bryan explained that his late sister “was in her home doing her laundry” when she passed away. He said “it was like somebody just turned the switch off on her … it was just tragic beyond words.” Kelly’s loss also left many “unanswered questions” for the family. “Everything [in the autopsy] was inconclusive.” Bryan remembered her as “everything in our lives,” and “the best mother you could ever dream of.” He and his wife, Caroline Bryan, adopted Kelly’s three children after Kelly’s husband, Lee, who died of a heart attack in 2014.
Bryan also spoke about losing his brother, Chris, who died in a car accident in 1996. He was 26. Bryan said “it was just tragic. …it was really my first big loss, and something I never would’ve predicted.” He reminisced on his brother’s unwavering support of Bryan’s dreams to become a country artist, and the moments they would’ve shared together since then.
“Watching my parents go through this twice is just not fair,” Bryan said during his conversation with Cooper. “My mother is a very, very emotional person, and she grieves their loss way differently than my dad.my dad grieves as southern gentlemen do, you know, my dad locks it in. My mother has forever changed how she walks through life.”
“In this personal and revealing conversation with Anderson, Luke shares how faith, family, and music have helped him ‘do what you do to get through.’” Find the full episode of All There Is with Anderson Cooper here.